David Moyes begins the new era at Manchester United for real against Swansea
on Saturday, but I have no fears that he and the club will struggle to
prosper after Sir Alex Ferguson as we did following Sir Matt Busby’s
retirement in 1969.

Great test: when Sir Matt Busby left Manchester United, the transition was far from easy and left the club damagedPhoto: GETTY IMAGES

There was a void at United after Sir Matt stepped down and I felt sorry for Wilf McGuinness having to take over as manager at that time. I played in Wilf’s first game, a 2-2 draw at Crystal Palace, and it was a team that also included George Best, Bobby Charlton and Denis Law, plus young lads in Brian Kidd and David Sadler.

People have spoken about that team being on the slide, but there were still young players around and George was only 23. The real problem for Wilf was that many of the players were his pals and former team-mates, so it was very difficult for him to make the transition to manager.

When Matt was in charge, he only had to tell us to jump and the reaction was “how high?” I think Wilf found it tough to gain complete control of the team in the same way, though, and managing proved to be a different challenge altogether to coaching, which he was always terrific at.

Had he gone away from Old Trafford after Matt’s retirement and come back a year later, I believe it would have worked for Wilf, but it was not to be unfortunately.

It is a totally different situation facing Manchester United now, though, under David Moyes. He does not have to overcome the same problems that Wilf faced and I have seen enough of the team during pre-season to recognise the similarities between David and Sir Alex.

David reminds me so much of Sir Alex and he has more than 10 years’ experience of managing in the Premier League with Everton. Wilf was only 31 when he succeeded Sir Matt and he had never managed before.

I have seen the team train this summer and David’s methods are not much different from Sir Alex’s, so the transition has been a good one so far.

Under Wilf, we lost three and drew three of our first six games before beating Sunderland in our seventh, but despite David’s complaints about United’s tough start this time, it will not be as bad as ours!

Paddy Crerand made 397 appearances for Manchester United between 1963 and 1971, winning two league championships, the European Cup and FA Cup.